BLOG CATEGORY: solving-homelessness

Two “buzzwords”/ hot topics in the housing sector: Rapid Rehousing and Housing First. Both of these ideas essentially follow the belief of: “move a person experiencing homelessness into permanent housing as quickly as possible to have the best outcomes.”

Sounds great, right? In some cases and in some places, it has been; (initially, at least—we don’t have much long-term data yet). And research has shown that when dealing with specific populations—chronically homeless single men, for instance—the practice has been largely successful.

However, I think, and new research shows, that for families, Housing First is not always the answer.

Ms. Latasha Furtick has been a resident at St. Lawrence Place since May 2013. In the three and half months that Ms. Furtick has been here, she has completed two very important goals; earning her GED and her Medical Assistant certificate.READ MORE

“The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people’s children.”

Almost 25 years ago a group of caring, concerned, people came together to talk about homeless families in Columbia. They talked about what they needed – not just temporarily, but long term – to permanently get out of the heartbreaking situation they had found themselves in. These caring, concerned, parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral founded Trinity Housing Corporation, a 501-c-3 with its own board of directors and staff, to take on this task.

Trinity Housing started with a duplex, on Hope Avenue. (When I tell this story people think I made up the street name, it’s so absolutely fitting…) When the City of Columbia offered property on Waites Road in early 1991, St. Lawrence Place was born, and two families became 28.